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BasDirks

1,639 karma · joined January 11, 2011

Haskell, Racket, JS, audio
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BasDirks··on My bad habit of hoarding information
Sounds like you are maintaining and extending your own frame of reference. I feel like a note that is never read again is not necessarily a wasted effort.
BasDirks··on Langoguessr
#2 on 'Infinite with Timer Limit' on the second attempt where I didn't get trolled by broken video.

Found some absolute bangers from unexpected countries. Better than any ML algorithm in terms of recommending interesting music.

Feedback:

* Broken videos are a problem.

* I don't have time to report broken video during play.

* I often wanted to check out songs, but no time to open/save them during play. I want some way to look up tracks after a session.

* The pop-up after each guess is animated. Animations are resource intensive and take up too much time. Do you need a pop-up at all?

* I want to (clearly) see my HP during the game.

* As someone else mentioned, the video images often give away the answer. Picture of Shiva? Probably Sanskrit.

BasDirks··on A picture of me
Romanticism, that sweet youthful foolishness. Living tragically can be beautiful, and lead to deep despair.
BasDirks··on How to professionally say
Well written but too hostile.
BasDirks··on Josh Wardle created Wordle as part of an ongoing quest to design online spaces
Why is nyt evil?
BasDirks··on Finnish govt agency warns of unusual aircraft GPS interference
> Is trusting those sources really an acceptable basis for any autonomous individual to proceed?

You yourself are awefully fond of basing elaborate narratives on dubious sources, which is fine, but why then stoop to high-school debate club level gaslighting like "Ultimately, this is an epistemological question - what do we know? And the only things one can say one knows, is stuff you have personally verified.", unless this is satire?

BasDirks··on Accused of cheating, marathon runner Frank Meza's life fell apart (2019)
You gonna tell them if he steals cookies from the cookie jar? I see your point but I ask where you draw the line.
BasDirks··on Accused of cheating, marathon runner Frank Meza's life fell apart (2019)
No, they don't have such a right, but everyone has the right to call him out publicly. The key point, for me, is that vengeance is evil. Cheaters should be exposed but not destroyed. Go the full mile to get cheaters banned from competitions and make sure that the record is set straight. Make sure that past winnings and glory is returned and nullified, and leave it at that.
BasDirks··on Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)
I don't see why this is downvoted. Seems like a solid argument, even though I don't agree.
BasDirks··on Russia to legalize software piracy
I disagree with the downvotes. Your first edit does a lot to clarify your position, but could you expand on it?
BasDirks··on Cunningham's Law
I really appreciate this comment, it was exactly what I was hoping for.
BasDirks··on Cunningham's Law
This is not true at all, in the domain of computer science there are no concrete examples of this.
BasDirks··on Twitch and OnlyFans block all users from Russia due to sanctions
You are not speaking to a y'all. Are you alluding to a dualist world-view?
BasDirks··on Twitch and OnlyFans block all users from Russia due to sanctions
You mean the common civilian in Ukraine, surely?
BasDirks··on Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack
This war is far from over.
BasDirks··on Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack
> Nobody is helping ukraine with any military, period. This is not true.
BasDirks··on Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack
Shady.
BasDirks··on Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack
Sources?
BasDirks··on Russian forces invade Ukraine after Putin orders attack
No. The Russian people are accountable.
BasDirks··on 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
After reaching that percentile the grind begins. And that's when learning begins. And that's when you develop character. The dopamine doesn't flow as freely any more as obstacles to improvement become the rule rather than the exception. Braggadocious anecdote: on December 25th, 2021, I started solving Kattis problems. I set myself a goal to reach a top 1000 rank in 2022. This took me two weeks instead of an entire year. I adjusted the goal to top 100. This is significantly harder, and after two more weeks I was tempted to dismiss the goal through excuses like: "these are just puzzles with limited real-world application". This is obvious bullshit, and I just wanted to avoid doing the work. I caught myself in the act and doubled down on the goal. I bought some books and learned a lot. Currently sitting on #229, and I _will_ reach top 100 this year.
BasDirks··on The Unreasonable Math of Type 1 Diabetes
To the author: you're doing a great job.
BasDirks··on How to skate a 10k
"This development was mainly acquired through continuous voluntary confrontation with the challenge (read that sentence again and emphasis voluntary). It was first when I understood that, or felt like, I volunteered, that I was able to compete with a free mind."

Biggest take-away for me so far is the importance of the voluntary aspect. He seems to be saying that when you fully say yes to hardship, it becomes easier to bear.

His mental fortitude provides a nice backdrop to all the UX guru's coming out of the woodworks to comment on an HTML page with a link to a PDF.

BasDirks··on Steps Towards Happiness (2015)
I don't like his proposed end goal. His happiness sounds like a mere absense of pain, but other methods will get you there more reliably. I like the first items on his list: go into the world and mess around, but then he begins to prescribe mental cleanliness: finish your plate, associate only with good people, don't cling to material possessions. It's like he's picking arbitrary chapters from Hesse's Siddhartha. I feel in an uncanny valley of dogma.
BasDirks··on We Tried Baseball and It Didn't Work (2006)
Americans and Aussies always seem to confuse football with concussionball.
BasDirks··on Art student’s 407-piece hand-carved wooden clock (2016)
Ah yes, if only you had more time. /snark
BasDirks··on Taliban enter Kabul as Afghan government on brink of collapse
A failure of the Afghan people! Hahaha, OK. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And ah, okay, the war in Afghanistan was to liberate women? Meanwhile the US is in bed with the Saudi's.
BasDirks··on Taliban enter Kabul as Afghan government on brink of collapse
Without the soviets, the war would not have been won, but how about we celebrate and honor this without shitting on America?
BasDirks··on Taliban enter Kabul as Afghan government on brink of collapse
The US played a pivotal role in saving our asses over in Europe, and we are eternally grateful, but ever since, the US has been bad at war. It's not the firepower, it's not the soldiers, and it's not the organization. These are top notch. It's the **ing politicians dragging young men and women into wars not worth fighting.
BasDirks··on I didn’t know how to write about my sister’s death, so I had AI do it for me
You are quite sour and pretentious. This is why you suffer.
BasDirks··on I didn’t know how to write about my sister’s death, so I had AI do it for me
No shit, they are dealing with the loss of their sibling.
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